HF: Cristina Prokop has kindly sent information about her grandfather Oscar Seepol. Mr Seepol had an eventful life and ran a photographic studio in Shanghai, during the 1940s, shown in the image below. Cristina says that her grandfather took many photographs of Shanghai during his time there, some of which could be described as being of industrial subjects. She wondered […]
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Cristina Prokop has kindly sent information about her grandfather Oscar Seepol. HF: As can be seen below Oscar ran a photographic studio in Shanghai during the 1940s and in the War. He took many photographs himself of Shanghai including some featuring industrial subjects. Cristina wondered whether these might be of interest to readers of this website and I thought so, […]
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IDJ has sent this newspaper article about a vehicle built by the South China Iron Works for a rally held in Hong Kong in 1950. We have quite a lot of information regarding this company, all linked below. IDJ notes, “Unfortunately, the micro-film image of the vehicle that heads the article is too obscured to make much out of it. […]
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IDJ has sent a series of articles about managers at Taikoo Dockyard: “John Finnie, the present Manager, was born at Greenock in 1897 and served his apprenticeship with Scotts’ Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd. He came to Taikoo Dockyard as Ship Draughtsman in 1924, became Assistant Manager in 1930, and was appointed Manager in 1937 on K.E. Greig’s retirement. The […]
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Thanks to IDJ for sending in this 1950 newspaper article about Radio Hong Kong expanding its broadcast programmes. The British Hong Kong Government launched its first radio broadcasting station, known as “GOW”, on 30 June 1928, with a starting staff of only six people. Several name changes occurred over the next few years, and it eventually became known as “Radio Hong Kong” (RHK) […]
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HF: Rob Weir started our interest in the possibility of Stonecutters Island being a site for Hong Kong airport given the dissatisfaction with Kai Tak post WW2 mainly related to its short runways and proximity to mountains. Rob found a Foreign Office file 371/53639 held at The National Archives at Kew, London, UK. The file refers to an investigation of […]
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IDJ: Before HAECO came into existence, three companies offered aircraft maintenance services at Kai Tak. JAMCO and PAMAS merged to become HAECO (Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company) on 1 November 1950. CNAC disappeared from the scene in 1949 when the government in China changed hands and CNAC’s assets were then subjected to a long drawn out legal battle in the […]
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HF: The Indo-China Steam Navigation Company Ltd (ICSNC), was established in 1873 as a subsidiary of Hong Kong based Jardine, Matheson & Co. With the advent of steam, Jardines became concerned that it might lose its former advantage in operating fast clippers. As a result, the company became seriously involved in steamships in the mid-1850s servicing the Bengal – China trade. […]
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Peter Crush has kindly sent the following article. Peter has also improved the clarity of the images used in the original article. KOWLOON-CANTON RAILWAY (BRITISH SECTION) The Kowloon-Canton Railway project that has for its purpose the safeguarding of the interests of Hongkong as a distributing center for South China by establishing a railway connection with the trunk line that, when completed, […]
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HF: With thanks to moddsey for pointing out a couple of sources. The banking industry began in Hong Kong in 1845 with the opening of a branch of the Oriental Banking Corporation, which had its headquarters in India. This Bank was also the first bank in Hong Kong to issue banknotes when in 1847 “it put in circulation $56,000 worth of […]
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